Today the Department for Education published data on the state school workforce in England for 2023.
This is based on census data from November 2023 and covers early years, primary and secondary schools on a raft of topics - from teacher pay averages to the workforce size, teaching hours and ethnicity.
Here are the key points you need to know.
1. The teacher workforce is growing - but only just
In total there were 979,085 full-time equivalent (FTE) people in the school workforce, up from 974,057 the previous year. Of these, 468,693 are classed as teachers, which represents a very small 0.1 per cent increase on 2022 (equivalent to 300 people).
This increase is notably lower than the growth over the previous year, when 2,800 more teachers joined the profession.
Unsurprisingly, given this slow growth rate, teacher recruitment issues remain prevalent, with the data revealing that teacher vacancies have increased by 20 per cent to 2,800 from 2,300 the previous year.
2. Support staff numbers are also up
The rest of the workforce total comes from FTE support staff, with 510,392 listed - a sizeable increase of 4,800 since the last data collection.
This number is also higher than the previous peak of 507,072 in 2015-16, and follows the trend of a year-on-year increase that has been in place since 2019-20.
3. The teaching workforce remains predominantly female
In 2023 the number of female teachers was 388,688, equating to 76 per of the total workforce - a stat that has remained fairly consistent over time.
However, only 69 per cent of leadership teachers were female. This gap is closing, albeit slowly: in 2010-11 women made up 66 per cent of leadership teachers, for example.
Of the 124,891 male teachers, 82,231 work in secondary schools, while just 34,001 work in primary or early years settings - compared with 211,179 female teachers.
Finally, men make up 35 per cent of secondary and 25 per cent of special school and alternative provision (including pupil referral unit) teachers.
4. The workforce is diversifying, slowly
The data also reveals that 16.2 per cent of teachers identified themselves as belonging to an ethnic minority group, up from 11.2 per cent in 2010-11.
During the intervening period some ethnic minorities have increased within the profession more than others. The proportion of teachers who identify as Asian or Asian British has increased by 2.3 percentage points to 5.5 per cent of the workforce. While the proportion of Black or Black British teachers has only increased by 0.8 percentage points to 2.7 per cent.
Ethnic minority teachers are not equally represented in leadership positions, with 10 per cent of Black or Black British and 8.3 per cent of Asian or Asian British teachers in these roles, compared with 15.9 per cent of white British teachers.
5. The most common teacher age range is 30-39
Currently education is the preserve of those in their middle years, with one-third of teachers (33.1 per cent) in the 30-39 age bracket and 27.9 per cent falling into the 40-49 age category.
The third largest group is those aged 50 to 59, who make up 17.6 per cent, but only 2.8 per cent of teachers are in the 60 and over bracket.
Teachers under 25 make up 4.5 per cent of the workforce and those between 25 and 29 make up 14.1 per cent.
6. Teacher entrants and retention are down
The number of teachers entering the profession in the state system is down 3,900 from last year to 44,002 across both primary and secondary settings.
This comes in the context of a worsening recruitment crisis and the long-delayed updated DfE recruitment and retention strategy, which will now not be published before the general election.
Almost the same number of teachers left as entered the sector: 43,500. This is slightly fewer than the 43,900 who left last year.
Of these, 39,971 (a whopping 92 per cent) left the sector to work elsewhere, while just 3,369 (7.74 per cent) retired, marking another year of decline since 2010-11 when 34 per cent of leavers left because of retirement.
Meanwhile, teacher retention rates continued to decrease for all cohorts except the newest.
Of teachers who qualified in 2022, 88.7 per cent were still in service a year later, compared with 87.2 per cent of the previous year’s cohort.
While this is a very small increase, it still means that more than one in 10 newly qualified teachers are leaving within a year.
And the numbers decline quickly over time, with 74.1 per cent of teachers who qualified three years ago still in the profession, 67.5 per cent of those who qualified five years ago still in the profession, and 57.8 per cent of those who qualified 10 years ago still in the profession.
7. Teacher salaries are up
The data reveals that average teacher salaries are up, with the average classroom teacher salary now £43,100 and the average headteacher salary £75,300 - all due to the government’s 6.5 per cent pay rise issued last September.
This increase has also bumped the average secondary headteacher salary over £100,000 for the first time, reaching £101,067 compared with the previous year’s £97,255. For comparison, the average primary headteacher salary is £71,729.
8. Subject specialist teaching hours vary
The impact of the recruitment and retention crisis is evident in the subject-by-subject data on lessons taught by non-specialist teachers.
While the DfE’s headline stat is that almost nine in 10 (86 per cent) of English Baccalaureate subjects were taught by a teacher with a relevant post-A-level qualification, the reality is much worse.
In physics, 72.2 per cent of hours were taught by a specialist teacher, meaning that more than a quarter of lesson time was led by non-specialists.
Languages also fared poorly, with 78.1 per cent of French hours, 79.6 per cent of German and 59.8 per cent of Spanish taught by a specialist. For the grouping “other modern languages”, it was just 56.2 per cent.
Particularly of note is computing, of which only 54.2 per cent of hours were taught by a specialist teacher.
Ellen Peirson-Hagger is senior writer
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